


Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 9

by serendipityxxi



Series: 12 Days of Haven OT3 Christmas [9]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Angst, Multi, Snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 19:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5509892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A non-canon-compliant fluffy Audrey/Nathan/Duke OT3 holiday prompt extravaganza!<br/>On the ninth day of Christmas my true loves gave to me... nine inches of snow</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 9

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is non canon compliant and takes place approximately two years after the Troubles are hand-wavey over. Audrey, Nathan and Duke went on a world tour on the Rouge after the Troubles ended and Haven was mostly rebuilt. This is their first Christmas back in Haven. All the fics in this series can be read as stand alones.
> 
>  **The prompt for this one was:** “there’s a storm and omg i’m losing signal are you okay?? hold on let me drive 489432 miles to get you the night before christmas”

On the ninth day of Christmas my true loves gave to me… nine inches of snow

Audrey sits on the couch and stares through the window at the snow coming down. The bare tree branches dance in the wind, skeletal fingers tapping at the glass. The wind howls against the house but inside it’s quiet. Nathan is puttering in the kitchen, cleaning things that are already clean. The lamps in the living room throw big squares of yellow on all that white. The neighbor’s Christmas lights are dancing a pattern through the thickly falling snow. They are waiting for the only lights they care about right now, those on Duke’s truck, to shine through the front windows.

Duke called and said he was leaving The Gull forty-eight minutes ago. It takes thirty to get home. Audrey is being very good about not calling because he might be driving. She doesn’t know how long she can keep Nathan from doing so though.

The shrill ring of a cellphone makes her jump and Audrey hustles into the kitchen but Nathan gets to it first. Audrey grabs his arm and he puts the phone on speaker.

Duke’s voice is tinny but that doesn’t stop the tired from coming through. He explains the roads are almost blocked from the storm and he’s just going to bunk at the Gull for the night rather than chance it in this snow.

Audrey listens as Nathan agrees reluctantly and hangs up, her mouth a tight line. They both know why Duke isn’t coming home tonight and the storm is just an excuse. It’s Wade’s birthday today. Duke got a call from Wade’s ex-wife that morning wanting to talk about Wade, wanting to know if there’s been any word on his case. And now Duke is off at the Gull wallowing in guilt.

Audrey and Nathan exchange looks.

Audrey wanted to go get Duke hours ago but Nathan had insisted they needed to give him the space he’d asked for. Audrey had gone along with it because she got needing space. But this? He’s not even going to come home tonight?

Nathan sighs and goes back to his cleaning. Audrey goes back to the couch but the words of the book blur before her eyes. She hurls the book at the other end of the couch and stands up.

“No,” she announces to Nathan, rounding the couch and storming into the kitchen. “No, we’re not leaving him to lick his wounds alone like some stray dog.”

Nathan drops his dishtowel and flashes her a smile of relief. “No,” he agrees.

So they pack up dinner for Duke and electric blankets and all the little essentials for dealing with a storm in Maine and then they pile it all into the Bronco and they drive into the snow. The clouds are hanging low over the town, their roiling mass reflecting the orange of the streetlights. Wind stirs the fresh fallen snow, blows it across their windshield, there’s ice on the road in patches, they pass few cars in the darkness, everyone inside avoiding the dangerous roads but Nathan drives on, well used to the ravages a Maine winter can throw at him.

~*~*~

When they get to the Gull Audrey expects to see her apartment lit up, but the only light is coming from the back of the restaurant and her heart twists. Duke didn’t even go up to the comfort of their bed upstairs, he’s stayed in his office on the couch if he’s even gone to sleep yet.

“Will you go open it up?” Audrey asks Nathan nodding to her apartment. “Get a fire going and all that? I’ll get him.” Nathan, that coward, looks relieved as he nods and hauls their stuff up the stairs.

Audrey storms through the backdoor of the restaurant like a Nor’easter, barges into the back room and finds Duke with his weapon pointed at the door when it swings open.

“Jesus, Audrey!” he swears, clicking the safety into place.

Audrey ignores that. “Up,” she orders, taking the gun from his hand and putting it back into its hiding spot, velcroed to the bottom of his desk.

“What you thought I didn’t know it was there?” she demands, rolling her eyes at him. “I’m a de-tec-tive, Duke. I notice things. I know where three quarters of your ‘hidden’,” she pauses here to make air quotes around the word, “weapons caches are. You’re not that great at hiding.”

Duke looks like he wants to argue but instead he takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair. The curls at the ends tangle around his wrists and Audrey longs to do the same with her fingers. “What are you doing here, Audrey?” he asks.

“You don’t have to talk,” she assures him, “you don’t have to share or whatever it is you think Nathan and I are going to make you do,” and here she rolls her eyes because seriously? Has he met her or Nathan? “But we are not sleeping without you. So come on. Upstairs. Move it!”

Duke’s mouth opens and closes and opens again. Audrey gives him a no-nonsense look. He shuts up, closes the laptop on the desk and picks up his keys.

Audrey prods him through the kitchen and buttons his coat buttons for him even though they’re only going thirty feet once they get outside. It’s cold. She slams her hat down over her ears and fixes him with her fiercest glare.

Duke raises his hands in surrender and allows himself to be led up the stairs.

Nathan is there at the door, pulling away coats and scarves and kissing Duke hard on the lips.

Duke pulls away from the kiss after the briefest peck. He looks from Audrey to Nathan and his shoulders slump.

“I don’t want you two here cause you feel sorry for me,” he tells the floor in front of his feet.

“Then it’s a good thing,” Audrey says pulling open the microwave where the plate with Duke’s dinner has just finished reheating. She sets the plate on the table with a clatter and turns to glare at Duke, hands on her hips. “We’re in a relationship, we get to be concerned and show support and that we care about you, you great, big, idiot. We’re not here because of pity. We’re here because we love you. And you’re damn well going to get used to that, Duke Crocker,” she announces pulling out the chair and giving it a pointed look.

Duke has the good grace to blush and starts to speak but Audrey is having none of it. She points to the chair. Duke slinks into it meekly.

Audrey and Nathan take seats at the table too. Duke eats with his eyes on his plate and doesn’t attempt to engage them in conversation at all which is worrisome. He eats though, and the tension in his shoulders lessens. He washes his plate in the sink and sets it in the drying rack after. He stares out the window for long moments, lost in his own thoughts.

Nathan comes up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist, rests his chin in the crook where Duke’s shoulder and neck meet.

“Wasn’t your fault,” Nathan tells him in a quiet, rumbly voice. “You did what you had to in god-awful circumstances,”

“You don’t even know the circumstances,” Duke protests. His hands are trembling where they rest on the edge of the sink.

“No,” Nathan agrees softly, “but I know you.”

Duke’s breath stutters a little at Nathan’s words and Audrey knows how much it means to Duke, to hear Nathan say that. She’s so proud of how far these two have come. She loves them so.

Audrey gets up and presses herself against their sides. “Come to bed,” she encourages her boys and they do.

They settle under the covers with Duke in the middle, Nathan spooned around his back, Audrey wrapped around his front, their legs a hopeless tangle. The room is dark except for the light of the fire that crackles away in the fireplace. Duke buries his face in the top of Audrey’s hair, his hand closing tightly around the arm Nathan’s got wrapped around his middle. He takes deep breaths and Audrey listens with her teeth gritted as he fights for composure. She wants to do something. To help somehow.

Finally Duke does something. He starts to speak, voice low and rough. He tells them then what happened that day with Wade and Jennifer and the bodies in the lake.

“He became a monster because of what we were but I never gave him the chance to come back from it,” he says so quietly Audrey has to strain to hear it. Her heart squeezes at his words.

“He was too far gone, Duke,” Audrey says softly, her hand stroking gently along his side.

“I was scared,” Duke confesses, hushed and broken. “Looking at him I could see what I could become, what I never wanted to…” he shudders here and Audrey and Nathan twine themselves around him tighter. “What my family had done throughout the years... No wonder we were all so fucked up,” Duke laughs but there’s no humor in it.

“You chose to not become what your family had,” Nathan tells him, “chose not to let your past rule your future. ’s what saved you, Duke.”

Duke presses back against Nathan, his arms tightening to pull Audrey against him.

Duke falls asleep soon after that, exhausted by the day and the emotions. And they haven’t solved anything, they might not ever resolve this because who could, but at least tonight they let Duke know he’s not alone. He has them and he can depend on them and if Audrey has to keep proving it for the next fifty years, she’s damn well going to and she knows so will Nathan and maybe after tonight Duke might believe it a little bit more too.


End file.
